Economists at the Legatum Institute have developed a prosperity index (http://www.prosperity.com/#!/). They compare 142 nations with 89 standard measures. Income is considered but isn’t the only factor. Money won’t help if you get murdered in your Rolls. The top 20 nations in 2013 were: Norway, Switzerland, Canada, Sweden, New Zealand, Denmark, Australia, Finland, Netherlands, Luxembourg, U.S.A., Ireland, Iceland, Germany, Austria, U.K., Belgium, Singapore, Hong Kong, France.

The Legatum Institute says about the U.S.: “Over the past five years, the country has declined 11 places to 24th in the economy sub-index, mainly due to decreases in gross domestic savings rates, a decline in high-tech exports, in five-year GDP per capita growth rate, confidence in the financial system and with satisfaction with access to food and shelter.” Why?

In our guts, we know it’s nuts. We’re unhappy. The U.N.’s 2013 World Happiness Report listed nations by happiness (http://unsdsn.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/WorldHappinessReport2013_online.pdf). The top 10 were Denmark, Norway, Switzerland, Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Austria, Iceland and Australia. We’re 17th. We’re not first because Republicans from Ronald Reagan have driven the narrative. But the top 1 percent are really happy.

Notice the happiness of the Nordic countries. The Economist gave a glowing account of them in its Feb. 2, 2013, special edition on Scandinavia. “Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Finland are doing rather well.” The “new Nordic model is proving strikingly successful.” They “cluster at the top of the league tables of everything from economic competitiveness to social health to happiness.” Notably, they’ve “avoided America’s extreme inequality” and have “the world’s highest rates of social mobility.”

Translation: the Nordic reality beats the American dream, hands down.

The Nordics have designed public services to make the private sector work better. So long as public services work, they don’t care who provides them (V.A., please note). Private firms may run public hospitals. Health care is basically free. Their health-care systems don’t run off with 18 percent of their economies, as is the US; they’re around the 2011 Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development average of 9.3 percent. Nobody’s uninsured. There are paid maternity leave, vacations and sick time. Schools are free, with private schools receiving a state subsidy. Further education is free. As a result, Nordic workers are healthy, productive and happy. They gladly pay taxes for this, like paying dues for a top country club.

Money in Nordic politics is limited, so politicians aren’t for sale. The Nordics don’t have One Dollar, One Vote. They’re democracies. America’s pretty much an oligarchy (run by the few for the few). Occupy Wall Street went nowhere.

Above all, the Nordics are pragmatic. They can all see past their noses and work together at the national level. They pursue policies to make everyone richer and happier, not just billionaires. The conservative Economist concluded: “It is possible to combine competitive capitalism with a large state (i.e., level of public services).” It’s “the next supermodel.”

That “supermodel” won’t happen here any time soon. We’ve become obsessed with doing everything at the individual level. Ideologically pure conservatives cannot see past their noses for the common good. Next, everything’s hypercompetitive, even Little League. It’s in the national DNA. Conservatives are proud of creating gridlock. And thirdly, policy decisions since 1975 have almost entirely favored the superrich. Republicans get Americans to vote against their own interests. It’s a case study of mass propaganda. It’s brilliant.

President George W. Bush Jr. said right out that his “base” was “the haves and the have-mores,” meaning his rich donors. In reality, the GOP’s voting base is the multitude of dirt-poor yokels who vote against their own interests, like turkeys voting for Thanksgiving. That’s why Republicans don’t retool their policies to benefit everyone, not just billionaires. They don’t need to. Republican voters only look for swagger.

So ask your swaggering Republican candidates, “Why do you support policies that make only billionaires richer? Why don’t you want me to get richer?”

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Comments

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posted by crishtia on 6/11/14 @ 08:56 p.m.

Scandinavians are tax paying drones. No American wants to be a tax paying drone. Besides being tax paying drones, Scandinavians are being run over by immigrants who are Muslims. 80% of rapes in Sweden are committed against Swedish women by immigrants.Raymond Freeman can stick his tax paying drone mentality where the sun doesn't shine.Keep the socialism and keep the immigrants Raymond FreemanI'll take lower taxes and small government to your rapes and drone mentality

posted by Scapegoat on 6/13/14 @ 07:17 a.m.

The only raping is that of the truth

posted by bobjohnson on 6/30/14 @ 11:54 a.m.

A friends daughter just got back from Norway. She liked Norway. The biggest complaint? EVERYTHING is expensive. A cup of coffee? 10 bucks. A meal at McD's? 15-20 bucks. Only worker drones pay those kind of prices. That's the truth.